THE BIBLE

20                 THE BIBLE            

 

The BIBLE… Common??? Absolutely, I say this not that the BIBLE is treated as common… However, lets face facts by much of todays standards the BIBLE has become exactly that…

The proof if your asking is easy, most Americans have several scattered about the house… Common in that fact… How often is it picked up in a given week??? Does that not make it common as well???

Of course, I am aware of the ability to download it on the computer, the tablet, and today’s cellphone… Its common there in that fact as well, so easy it can be obtained… Gone are the days that few had the BIBLE and where at one time in history it was literally chained to the pulpit…

How about the absence of today in this fact of those living the BIBLE??? Is that not common as well??? When in our world today in the ever-increasing murder rates, rioting, violence, and crime??? What about the breakdown of the family??? The voice on the radio spoke of the opioid use now has become a 500 billion dollar problem in America today… Pornography this is something that America leads in as the world’s leading exporter… What of wars and the talk of war that is so prevalent, we see it, and hear it everywhere…

At this writing, it is said that Iran is now in route to place their war ships off the coast of Mexico, with some South American countries as well even with the possibility of being given safe harbor… That is very close to us…

This should bring to our attention the word of GOD… The BIBLE has become way to common in this present generation…

When the BIBLE can make such boasts throughout history…

·       Over 40 authors of 66 books of the bible… Thirty-nine OT books 27 NT books… A 1500 year span in its recording… 5,000 NT manuscripts found of the NT translations…

·       The NT boasting 5,000 manuscript copies which were being produced no later than 50 years after the NT was written…  No other can say it of another book… The word of GOD is TRUE…

Prophecies of the old testament that foretell of Jesus…

·       Biblical scholar J. Barton Payne cited 574 Old Testament verses containing messianic prophecies…

Josh Mcdowell points out…

·       The Messiah would: reconcile men to God at painful cost to Himself; come from the seed of a woman (Genesis 3:15)…

·       Be a Semite (Genesis 9:26);

·       Descend through Abraham (Genesis 22:18),

·       Isaac (Genesis 21:12) and

·       Jacob (Numbers 24:17)

·       Be from the tribe of Judah (Genesis 49:10);

·       Be a prophet, like Moses (Deuteronomy 18:15),

·       A priest (Psalm 110:4),

·       The judge (Isaiah 33:22) and

·       King (Psalm 2:6);

·       Descend from Jesse's line (Isaiah 11:1) and

·       David's line and be eternal king (2 Samuel 7:13);

·       Be born in Bethlehem (Micah 5:2)

·       Be given gifts (Psalm 72:10; Isaiah 60:6);

·       Be called Lord (Psalm 110:1);

·       Be announced in advance (Isaiah 40:3);

·       Begin his ministry in Galilee;

·       Heal the blind, deaf, dumb and lame (Isaiah 35:5,6);

·       Teach in parables (Psalm 78:2);

·       Enter the Temple (Malachi 3:1);

·       Enter Jerusalem on a donkey (Zechariah 9:9);

·       Be a stumbling block to the Jews (Psalm 118:22, 8:14);

·       Be a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 60:3);

·       Be betrayed by a friend (Psalm 41:19) and

·       Sold for 30 pieces of silver, which Judas would throw into the Temple and which would be given for the potter's field (Zechariah 11:12-13);

·       Be struck, causing his disciples to scatter (Zechariah 13:7), which Christ affirmed and repeated (Matthew 26:31);

·       Be falsely accused (Psalm 35:11);

·       Stand silent before His accusers (Isaiah 53:7);

·       Be wounded and bruised for people's sins (Isaiah 53:5),

·       Smitten and spit upon (Isaiah 50:6) and

·       Mocked (Psalm 22:7);

·       Be crucified with thieves and plead for those killing him (Isaiah 53:12);

·       Be thirsty (Psalm 69:21);

·       As flesh would pray God why He had forsaken Him (Psalm 22:1);

·       Be buried in a rich man's tomb (Isaiah 53:9).

·       Darkness would fall over the land (Amos 8:9);

·       His hands, feet (Psalm 22:16) and side (Zechariah 12:10) would be pierced, but none of His bones would be broken (Psalm 34:20);

·       His own people would reject Him (Isaiah 53:3)  

·       Be hated without cause (Psalm 69:4);

·       His friends would witness His ordeal from afar (Psalm 38:11); and

·       People would cast lots for his clothing (Psalm 22:18).

McDowell notes that the Old Testament was completed in about 450 B.C., but if you won't accept that, you can verify that the Septuagint (Greek translation) was begun during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (285-246 B.C.), which means the Hebrew version had to have been completed at least 250 years before Christ was born.

He also notes that while it's true that Jesus could have arranged to fulfill some of these prophecies, He could not have orchestrated the place, time and manner of His birth… Jesus would be betrayed, the manner of His death, people's reactions to His crucifixion, the piercings and the burial.

The statistical odds that any man might have fulfilled all eight of those prophecies, let alone 61 (or 574) of them, are 1 in 10 to the 17th power… This in our BIBLE…

Note what the Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said, “there is no Jewish existence without the Bible; it doesn’t exist,” he went on to say, “in my opinion there is also no Jewish future without the Bible…”

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu practices what he preaches his son 2010 won 1^st Pl. in the national Bible quizzing he went on to win third-place internationally…

It was stated in the news that in Washington an American school when compared on the first day of classes nothing will be said about the Bible, but in Israel and their public-school system… Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met 200 students, urging them to be serious about Bible study…

He told them be all you can be… Doctors, attorneys, physicians all these and more… Yet, hear what Benjamin Netanyahu said in their learning; “first of all learn the Bible… Study the Bible…”

Note this event in Prime Minister Netanyahu life… “On Wednesday afternoon in Baghdad, a few thousand kilometers away from the Prime Minister’s Jerusalem Residence, the world powers known as the  P5+1 — the US, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany — sat down for much anticipated talks with the Iranians about their nuclear program.

At the same time, just a few hundred meters away from the Prime Minister’s Residence, 100 or so people loudly demonstrated for the rights of Ethiopian immigrants and against discrimination.

And while this and more was going on, for two hours on a mild afternoon, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — with a small black kippa on his head — sat in the covered courtyard of his home with 16 rabbis, academics, Bible scholars, archeologists and linguists, and discussed the meaning of the Book of Ruth… His wife, Sara, sat next to him, and his two sons sat on a bank of chairs set to the side.

“There was something at once heartening and slightly humorous about Netanyahu setting aside precious time in the late afternoon to talk about Biblical figures Tamar, Naomi and Boaz, Ruth and David…

This is what took precedent in the life of Benjamin Netanyahu while Iran loomed so large, and domestic issues beckoned so seriously.

NOW--- OF ALL THINGS THAT BECKONED A WORLD LEADER---THE IMPORTANCE WAS BIBLE STUDY… GOD’S WORD…

I don’t know what it must take for the word of GOD to once again to be so important that like in its past it’s taught and revered again…   At least respected for what the Bible is, “THE WORD OF GOD…”

Consider Israel today that if in their own words that their existence is tied to the Bible as stated… See their past in all their times of war and times of such hatred against them… From the Egyptians, the Philistines, Assyrians, Babylonians, and others… Consider from the New Testament times, Rome, wars of 70 A.D. the destruction of their temple… Beyond even the BIBLE and modern history… In 90 A.D. Then 116 A.D. and again in 135 A.D. On and on we can look and see they never forgot who they were…

Hitler and the Holocaust; 6 million Jews dead and such awful treatment that words can’t even capture the magnitude of such human ugliness, and demonic forces at work… Yet, in our day in the words of Benjamin Netanyahu says they stand today and into the future because of the bible…

Consider the gods of so many of the past…

Baal-Peor	Numbers 25:03	Moabite regional variation/aspect of Baal.
Baal-zebub	Luke 11:19	Philistine/Ekronian regional variation/aspect of Baal.
Baalim	I Kings 18:18	Canaanite gods (“lords” or “masters”), a collective of the different aspects of Baal.
Bel	Isiah 46:01	Assyrian/Babylonian/Sumerian god (“lord” or “master”) aspect of Baal.
Chemosh	I Kings 11:07	Moabite war god.
Dagon	I Samuel 05:02	Philistine/Ekronian/Babylonian god of grain and agriculture.
Diana of the Ephesians	Acts 19:35	Ephesian moon and nature goddess, (equivalent of the Greeks Artemis).
Jupiter	Acts 14:12	King of the Roman gods.
Mercurius	Acts 14:12	Roman god of communication and travel, and messenger of the gods. Also known as Mercury.
Milcom	I Kings 11:05 & 07	Ammonite god of fire (also known as Moloch, Molech, Molekh, or Molek).

 

The question is where are they now??? Nonexistent and yet, the GOD of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel still stands and is worshipped today, even with the misaligned and scattered through history…

The BIBLE is right… The BIBLE is true… The BIBLE is coming to pass as it always has… See it, feel it, know it… Let the times awaken THE BIBLE AGAIN IN ALL OF US…

Israel is studying… Israel is looking for their Messiah… They know who they are their identity is tied to the BIBLE… Look at them today… See them hold to who they are all due to the BIBLE…

Deut 11:18 Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes.

19 And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.

20 And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates:

21 That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth.

22 For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him;    KJV

We as Americans teach our kids to play ball, get them in every sport, every activity we possibly can… We teach them how to catch and throw a ball, play golf, the boys how to hunt and the girls how to cheerlead… We buy them the latest of iphones, and game systems… We pressure them about school, college and career… I just ask, one question with Jesus’ soon return… WHERE IS THE BIBLE IN THE LIVES OF OUR CHILDREN, OUR MARRIAGES, OUR HOMES???

WHERE IS THE BIBLE??? SEE ISRAEL… SEE THEIR DESIRE… THEY GAVE US THE BIBLE, THEY GAVE US JESUS AND SOON THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH… WHERE IS YOUR BIBLE???

Ps 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.     KJV